NCIS: Los Angeles – Season 2
The Naval Criminal Investigation Service’s Office of Special Projects is responsible for taking on terrorist threats and protecting homeland security by means of hard action, undercover operations and plenty of tech gizmos.
In the second season of this series, we return to the team of G. Callen (still looking to find out more about his childhood), Sam Hanna, Kensi Blye, Marty Deeks and Eric Beale who are still lead by Henrietta ‘Hetty’ Lange but apparently also has some secrets of her own which start to surface during the season.
Sound and Vision:
NCIS Los Angeles has quite a big budget and except for some minor posterization we didn’t spot any real technical issues. There’s a lot of use of color filters and saturation to create an almost tropical feel for the series (pretty much as in Burn Notice) but this sometimes makes the series look cheaper than it is. Technically, however, this transfer is pretty well done.
Also the sound does a fine job with good use of the surround speakers for music and effects while the dialogues are mostly well-placed at the front center and crystal clear.
Extras:
– Uncovering Season 2
– Location, Location, Location
– ‘Absolution’ – The Table Read
– There’s Something About Hetty
– Shooting Up L.A.
– Audio commentary track wiht episode “Anonymous”
The audio commentary track doesn’t offer much insight into the series nor the episode, but the other extras are quite interesting and deliver about an hour and a half of additional info. Good stuff that fans will definitely appreciate!
Conclusion:
NCIS LA has the advantage of having some really great cast members with Chris O’Donnell and LL Cool J taking the lead, but it’s actually Linda Hunt who steals the show. Her performance of Hetty makes things more interesting, much in the way CCH Pounder’s Mrs. Frederic uplifts Warehouse 13.
This second season of the spin-off still has some ties towards the original series but they’re getting smaller and smaller and aren’t actually necessary to demonstrate the new show can stand on its own feet. However, looking at the series as a whole, things are a bit too obvious and all too many times things happen coincidentally to make it a top TV show.
NCIS Los Angeles isn’t bad, and there’s plenty of fans present, but I would consider it more as a snack in between other cop shows that have a greater depth and this second season doesn’t manage to close the gap with other series in the same genre.
5.0